Without some better scale indication, it's hard to tell the sensor size, but >5x crop factor would be a disappointment to me. I knew they were going small, but that's getting towards too small. I guess they don't want to risk their DSLR sales over this.

So...Nikon is going to fail as well with this product. Great...
"let's make a mirorless camera,with a tiny sensor & some lenses that we haven't produced yet" I don't understand these people. These cameras can't compete against anything. A high-end compact like G12/S95/LX5 would be a more reasonable solution compared to this. Also,because these mirorless cameras will be pretty expensive,one could always take a look at the Panasonic/Sony/Olympus offers,which benefit of larger sensors & a already good array of lenses.

Have you seen the additional speculation that the crop factor may be of the order of half that of the Pentax Q? If so then that means it's less than double that of the Nikon APS-C cameras and maybe, just maybe, with backlit sensors the low light performance may be only a stop or two behind its bigger cousins.

I also read this morning that the post containing the leaked image was removed from the original site at Nikon's request. Smart move by Nikon as it just serves to increase the level of interest.

I don't remember the exact values, but I do remember the earlier rumours indicating a "smaller sensor", smaller than 2x crop of m4/3, which in itself is not a problem. Just I find it harder to get enthused once you get above 5x. If you're going to have compact sized sensors, might as well just get the compact. Of course that doesn't leave much of a gap, but something around 3x-4x would be ok for me, providing they can make smaller lenses to go with smaller sensors (DoF considerations aside). We shall just have to wait and see.

I'm on a similar page with the caveat that as and when there's a Pentax Q to T mount adapter I might invest in a Q precisely because of those tiny pixels. But, possibly unlike your good self, if Canon were to offer a compact system camera with anything smaller than an APS-C sensor I can't personally see a reason to buy it.

@Razvan If Canon were to go that route, as it appears that Nikon will and Pentax have, then they would have done their market research and identified their target market.

Nikon Rumors are now suggesting that the three new lenses for the Nikon --insert your own acronym here-- camera will be a 10mm f/2.8 pancake lens, a 10-30mm f/3.5-5.6 VR lens and a 10-100mm f/4.5-5.6 VR super zoom lens. If that's right I doubt the sensor can have a 5x crop factor so the question is what would be the ideal crop factor to go with those lenses? Being in a plumpish sort of mood I'll plump for a crop factor of 3.8x.

While Sony, Panasonic and Olympus might be lining up to try and dethrone the DSLR as "affordable" high end photography for the masses, I got a feeling that Nikon is in no hurry to cannibalise their own more significant DSLR business and their mirrorless will serve in a lower space than the three mentioned previously.

Thinking more on the crop factors, two more numbers could work too:
2.4x: 24, 24-72, 24-240
3.5x: 35, 35-105, 35-350 although this one might be a bit too old school.

I think that if Nikon really wants to sell this product, it's going to need to have something useful that the Panny, Oly and Sony don't have. Perhaps size? If it's small enough to be comparable to the Coolpix cameras, and you're able to slip it into your pocket easily, it could sell well. One of my gripes about Sony's system is although the cameras themselves are tiny, the lenses are massive! Good luck fitting one of those into your coat pocket. If Nikon's able to keep the lens size down and the body size down, perhaps its edge will be size and the smaller sensor won't be as bad of a problem. But with such a small sensor, people could be asking, "why don't I just buy a Coolpix for half the price?" Higher quality lenses? I hope so. Size? I doubt that it'll be smaller than the Coolpixes, hopefully the same size as some of the larger ones. Image quality? I could imagine it being better, but how much better? If Nikon can get a decent lens system to go along with the new camera, it could be a success.

I was looking at all the mirror-less camera speculation and rumors, for both Canon and Nikon, hoping for something nicely compact that could use my existing EF and/or Nikkor lenses, and found it: a Nikon FM3A! Full-frame, too! Who needs AF and digital, anyway?